One of the necessary steps in the manufacture or retrofit of fluorescent lighting systems is the installation and/or removal of a ballast in a lighting fixture or junction box. Typically, ballast installation involves two distinct tasks -- electrical wiring and physical mounting of the ballast package.
Existing methods for mounting a ballast within a lighting fixture or junction box include the simple "hardware" approach, in which the ballast package contains flanges on opposing ends and the ballast is mounted to the fixture using simple screws or nuts and bolts, and the "snap-on" method, in which the base of the ballast enclosure contains small projections which snap into holes in the fixture or junction box. The hardware approach is undesirable due to the amount of time and effort, as well as the additional hardware and tools, that are required. The snap-on method, while much less labor intensive than the hardware approach and quite attractive due to its simplicity and apparent elimination of the need for additional hardware or tools, has proven to be highly unreliable from a mechanical standpoint and is not at all amenable to repeated installation and removal of the same ballast.
It is therefore apparent that a ballast mounting which eliminates the need for additional hardware and tools, which minimizes the time and effort required for installation and removal, and which provides a reliable, secure, and repeatable mounting of the ballast package, would constitute a considerable improvement over the prior art.